Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Almost half a year has gone by and here is the last topic from the Phuket trip during December 2013. As we chose Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa at Mai Khao to stay over the vacation, we, thus had some chances to try restaurants within the hotel. The two we would like to present this time are Loca Vore and Takieng.

Loca Vore is the destination in the hotel where food are served all day. In the morning, this is where hotel clients have a beautiful breakfast. The atmosphere is tremendous and we really love it. If the weather is not too hot nor to humid, al fresco is a must must thing (at least we would recommend it). What can be more relaxing than a breakfast with a nice view and good food. The place is rather big in fact. Thus, 30 guests all at the same for breakfast is sure not a problem here. The service is also great here. Staffs are friendly and helpful.

At the price of THB700 per head for buffet breakfast, we would not say it is cheap. But this is not as well so expensive for the range of food you get. Choices vary from pastry and bread counter to the counter of typical breakfast like sausages and bacon to the healthy fruit juice station. The favourite part for kids may get the ice-cream corner where there are around 10 choices of ice-cream to be chosen from. For us, the egg station has always been the must go destination. We had egg benedict which was enjoyable.

Well, this is sure another top hotel breakfast in Thailand. Still the one we like the most is the breakfast at Evason Hua Hin but Loca Vore is indeed in a comparable standard.

Open Hours: daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from around 6am to 9pm_________________________________________________

Takieng is the Thai restaurant of Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa. It operates during dinner period only. The style of this place is kind of chill and relax. There are also outdoor seats with good view of the beach. During high season, I would recommend anyone who is going to visit Takieng to make reservation as the place can be full. Hotel guests seem to like this place a lot. To be honest, the ambient is clam and relax, service is friendly, food tastes nice, and pricing is in the acceptable range. These are why Takieng can be popular amongst hotel guests though local Phuket food is very famous.

Thai food at Takieng comprises of both typical Thai food and local Southern Thai food. All of which came at moderate taste, meaning taste of herbs and spices was presented well but each dish was not too hot nor too spicy. For us, we had 3 dishes here: 1 Southern dish and 2 ordinary. The first one was phad meang goong sieb - ผัดเหมียงกุ้งเสียบ (7/10). Meang is a local Phuket vegetable that is similar to spinach but a little crispier texture and with unique aroma. When stir-fried with smoked shrimp, it can be pretty delicious. Takieng also made this pretty nicely as in those local stores.Next was choo chee ped krob - ฉู่ฉี่เป็ดกรอบ (6/10). This dish was enjoyable. The curry paste was full of spices but not really spicy which suits my liking but might be the case for other locals. The dish came with tomato and lychee, similar to gang phed ped yang (grilled duck in red curry sauce), which helped balancing the hot flavour. Lastly, it was pla krapong with takieng sauce - ปลากะพงซอสตะเกียง (7/10). This tasted pretty much like tom kha. Instead of using chicken, sea bass was deep-fried and served with herbal coconut milk sauce. I like this one a lot.For us, Takieng is a decent Thai restaurant that we would not mind dining every evening if we were to stay at Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa during a vacation. Driving into Phuket town from Mai Khao can take half an hour and this can be tiring, so why not at all to have decent food in the hotel.

Palate: somewhat medium and fresh with bright cut on the finish. concentrated citrus based fruits palate accompanied with mineral, chalk, and light smoke.

A beautiful Montee de Tonnerre with acidity playing as the key character. It may be accessible now but a few years of bottle age should do it well, I guess. An impressive bottle with energy and power but not overwhelming. Really good Summer sipping in fact. If you come across it, stock it up.

It was a fine Sunday that I had an unexpected chance to visit Yuan @ Millennium Hilton Bangkok. Never heard of its popularity before. The first impression was a surprise that the place was indeed full. There would be not seat for us without reservation surely. The second thought came into mind that this must be a good meal.

On the side of atmosphere, I do like the fact about large windows that offer clients good view of Chao Phraya River and the sunlight of course. The place is spacious with each table at good distance apart. However, the decoration and furniture range give somewhat confusion in terms of mood and tone to my sense.

Yuan Chinese Restaurant @ Millennium Hilton Bangkok

spacious restaurant with good view of Chao Phraya River

As in other Chinese restaurants nowadays, Yuan offers the "all you can eat dim sum" too which comes at the price of THB850++ per head. Personally, the buffet thing can always be expensive if you are not a big eater. But you can the chance to try a little of many things. Anyway, I did give it a go even buffet has never been my kind of thing.

I did not try many dishes during the occasion as there were only 2 of us. Yet, it should give you enough range to get the impression of dim sum at Yuan. None of the dishes I ordered were great. They all were just standard dim sum that you don't even need to come to high end restaurant for it. The one disappointment was mango pudding. It was kind of soft, meaning no bouncy texture. I do not like it though.

Perhaps, my initial thought about this place to be fabulous was wrong. It was ok to eat. But surely not buffet thing as it won't boost appetite that much. By the way, there is no BTS or MRT near Millennium Hilton Bangkok so driving only. Well, I personally won't give this place a return if there are still many better places for dim sum in town. But if you were to come here, make sure you do ask for window seats to at least enjoy the view of Chao Phraya River. Below is the list of what I experienced.

Palate: juicy, sweet, and dense. big and delicious but unlike the American style of big. elegant also lies within. dark berries with balanced acidity. long and thick jams with oak and spices followed by mocha. complexity lies within. it sings harmoniously with rich flavour.

Needless to say, this is a great quality bottle of super Tuscan that has probably just started to reveal its true value. It shall live a decade to go. Promising and exciting bottle. This is a food wine and shall compliment well with roasts and games.

Aji is a large Japanese restaurant that is located of the 3rd floor of Big C Ekkamai. It has been here for a few years already but this was our first visit. Surprisingly for a place like Big C to have this kind of restaurant situated within. The place reminds of those kind of restaurant/pub where white collar Japanese hang out with colleagues or clients after work. Notice the long cupboard with stored unfinished sake near the entrance. Aji is actually suitable for all kind of meal, except a date I suppose, for examples dinner with clients, family meal, hanging out with friends, and etc. However, bear in mind to ask for non-smoking seats if you cannot take the smoke or you are with kids. By law in Thailand, smoking in restaurant is prohibited and illegal but many restaurants still offers their clients smoking seats though.

The one thing that we do like about this kind of Japanese restaurant is the privacy. There is a partition between each table which really give a more private atmosphere. Aji's range of menu is wide. There are almost all sorts of Japanese food: sushi, sukiyaki, udon, and etc. They are, in fact, enjoyable and priced somewhat reasonable. The one that we like is nabe range and we would recommend you to try.

Aji Japanese Taste @ Big C Ekkamai, Bangkok

variety of menu

clients' unfinished sake and alcohol

partition between seats

Firstly, we tried some sashimi and sushi. The aji sashimi (6/10) was fresh and lovely. It was not so delicate but pleasure enough to satisfy me. However, it was strange that we were told to have it with shoyu instead of ponzu like in other places. Anyway, it is one of my favourite dish. Then we had chutoro and akami nigiri. We were told that chutoro is rather nice here. Chutoro (6/10) today was indeed nice and pleasant. It was not the kind of those high end sushi. It is more of valuable kind. The akami (5/10) was standard. It was somewhat bland for me.

aji sashimi - ซาชิมิปลาทู (THB200)

chu toro, akami nigiri morikomi - ชูโทโร่กับอะกะมิรวมมิตร (THB480)

The highlight was the nabe. We had buta nabe or simply pork hot pot (7/10). At the price of THB680, this was not cheap but it could do enough a good meal for 2 persons. The nabe comes with 4 choices of soup: tomato soup, miso soup, shoyu soup, and shio soup. We did go for shoyu soup this time and it did not disappoint us. The set came with various vegetables, sliced porks, and minced pork. Pork was tender and the minced pork that made pork ball was flavourful. The soup was also delicious. This is a must try dish. Surely, people may get used to those all-you-can-eat suki but this will indeed give another kind of happiness.